The Plan to End Childhood Hunger

Help afterschool programs provide healthy meals and snacks

Hunger can be a problem even for children who get a good breakfast and lunch in school. Their growing bodies need food to get through the afternoon. Without it, they feel run-down, their attention spans shorten, and they have difficulty benefitting from afterschool programs. The District has a strong network of school- and community-based afterschool programs, most of which provide a snack. But snacks cost money, and often the afterschool programs lack adequate funding to provide foods that are convenient, tasty and nutritious.

Too few afterschool programs are aware of the federal funding available to provide healthy snacks, or do not know how to take advantage of the funding. The Partnership has spread the word and connected more afterschool programs --and the children they serve--to this vital program. Between October 2006 and October 2007, participation in the Federal Afterschool Snack Program grew 171 percent, from 5,048 children to 13,691. In January 2009, the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR), with our assistance, began serving suppers to children ages 12 and under who are participating in DPR afterschool programs.

We will protect these gains and bring even more afterschool programs into the Federal Afterschool Snack Program. We will ratchet up our efforts to help the District serve more healthy, substantial snacks and suppers to low-income children. And we will advocate for the District of Columbia to become an Afterschool Meal Program pilot state so low-income youth 18 and younger can have ready access to healthy, satisfying suppers.

Since 2006 we have:

• Advocated for the District of Columbia to become the 14th Afterschool Meal Program state which will provide federal funding to afterschool programs for meals to low-income children.
• Simplified enrollment in the afterschool nutrition program by reducing the length of the application from 72 to 10 pages.
• Supported D.C. public schools in expanding participation in the Federal Afterschool Snack Program.
• Helped the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (the state agency that administers afterschool nutrition programs) reach out to prospective afterschool program sites and assess the availability of funds for snacks and suppers.
• Recruited new afterschool snack program sponsors and retained existing ones.
• Helped the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation as it began participating in the out-of-school meal program.
• Continued to advocate for including afterschool nutrition programs in city-wide afterschool programs through the D.C. Alliance of Youth Advocates and the D.C. Youth Investment Trust.

2009-2010 Goals:

Participation in the federal afterschool nutrition programs will increase 5 percent over the previous year.

2009-2010 Action Plan:

• Develop an on-line application and outreach plan with the Office of the State Superintendent of Education to make it easier for organizations to participate in afterschool nutrition programs.
• Partner with the D.C. public schools to ensure that all eligible school-based out-of-school programs are participating in afterschool snack or supper programs.
• Leverage private funds and volunteer efforts to ensure adequate equipment for afterschool food storage and preparation.
• Conduct an education campaign for afterschool program providers about the availability of funds for snacks and suppers.
• Assess the nutritional quality of snack and supper sites and determine what sites need to improve food quality through use of the Food Research and Action Center’s “Standards of Excellence for Afterschool Programs.”
• Develop a plan to help Department of Parks and Recreation replicate its successful D.C. Free Summer Meals Program for use in afterschool programs.

Measures of Success

• Increase in number of District school children participating in free snack programs.
• Increase in number of both District public and charter schools offering free snack programs.
• Increase in number of District Parks & Recreation locations offering free snack programs.
• Increase in number of either community-based organizations or the locations at which these organizations offer free snack programs.
• Acceptance into the Federal Afterschool Meal Pilot program.